Abstract. Chickens kept under free-range, backyard or semi-intensive systems in the
developing countries have more diverse use and benefits to rural households.
Their use varies from region to region and from community to community
within a region. The study investigated growth, laying performance and
survivability of six improved dual-purpose breeds in five agroecologies of
Nigeria represented by the following states: Kebbi (Sudan savanna/northern
Guinea savanna); Kwara (northern Guinea savanna/southern Guinea savanna);
Nasarawa (southern Guinea savanna/derived savanna); Imo (lowland rainforest/swamp); and Rivers (freshwater swamp/mangrove swamp). On-farm data
were obtained from 2100 smallholder poultry farmers that received an average
of 30 birds (mixed sexes) of any one of the following dual-purpose breeds
(Fulani, FUNAAB Alpha, Kuroiler, Noiler, Sasso and Shika-Brown) randomly
allocated to them. The farmers used the backyard, scavenging system of
management. Body weight and mortality records for cocks were taken for 18 weeks, while body weight, mortality, egg production and egg weight data were
collected for hens up to 72 weeks. Compared with the local cocks (680 g),
Kuroiler (1391 g), Sasso (1398 g) and Noiler (1461 g) had over 200 %
body weight at 18 weeks. Hen day egg production (HDEP) was higher in
Shika-Brown (45.9 %), FUNAAB Alpha (45.8 %) and Kuroiler (45.7 %)
compared with the other breeds. Fulani, FUNAAB Alpha and Shika-Brown had
higher survivabilities (p<0.05) than Noiler, Sasso and Kuroiler.
Ranking of the breeds for growth, laying performance and survivability was
as follows: Shika-Brown/Sasso > FUNAAB Alpha/Noiler > Kuroiler > Fulani. The performance of the breeds was significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the agroecologies. The cock
body weights for Fulani (1121.1 g), FUNAAB Alpha (1502.4 g) and Noiler
(1459.2 g) were highest in Kebbi, while for Kuroiler (1561.0 g), Sasso
(1695.9 g) and Shika-Brown (1131.6 g) cock body weights were highest in Imo.
Across the states, Imo had the highest HDEP (62.8 %). Overall, the
lowland rainforest/ freshwater swamp agroecologies supported the highest
production performance of the breeds.
